Plate-like recording media, e.g., CD-R and the like, are media which the user can utilize freely for recording. The surfaces of some media are printed in advance by another method with characters, designs, patterns and the like indicating company name, product name etc. that do not have to be changed with each recording of data. However, printing of additional information etc. is possible. Moreover, the recording capacity of such a medium is large. In view of these points, it is convenient to print titles and the like indicating the recorded content on the surface of the case or directly on the CD-R surface.
In the case of new record releases, computer software and other such products produced in large quantities and recorded with information known in advance, this kind of printing can be done by the manufacturer beforehand. However, no method or apparatus has ever been proposed for enabling the user to print desired content-related information, images and the like by a simple operation.
The object of this invention is to provide a printing method and printing apparatus enabling captions and the like to be easily printed on the surface of a CD-R or other plate-like recording medium or the surface of the case thereof.